Gate decides not to move from the platform.
Samen makes it to the exit safely!
The waters seem safe… for now.
You all follow the S-C-R-A-G-S pattern set out by Samen. Because you all happen to have the same alignment on the Chaos/Law axis, nothing horrible happens when you follow the established pattern.
Looking through the door into the next room doesn’t reveal much except another flooded room and metal walls blocking the way through about 15 feet from the entrance. A number of rough-topped pillars can be seen piercing the liquid’s surface by about 6 inches.
The water here is deep.
The nimble Klaytal is leading the way, and is about to drop a plank on a post when he sees a trap! He moves back, letting Samen take the lead and letting the less acrobatic Gate and Boy stay on the planks, where it's safer.
"Hmm, let's see what we have here..."
There's a spring in it that you can't quite reach. But so close!
Klaytal lazily spins a rope in circles, "Hm, what if we lean you a little closer, Samen?"
"I don't know, I really thought I had it there. It may be this one's beyond my skill. Anyone have any other ideas?"
"Anyone have a mirror? Give me a boost up?" The boy makes as if to climb on Gate's shoulders, trying to look through the gap at the top of the wall.
There's more pillars and water; no enemies.
"Alright, if one of you can help me, I'll take another crack at this thing."
A mini stormcloud springs up above the platform ahead. The room is suddenly filled with driving sleet that blocks all vision. The water below fills with floes of ice. The metal walls gain a substantial chill.
The planks you're standing on quickly fill up with slush. You will need to make an acrobatics check with a +2 circumstance modifier if you're on planks or fall into the water.
"Oops! Uh...that's not good."
"BRRR!!!!!"
Klaytal and Samen manage to stay atop their respective perches — it's quite impressive Klaytal, standing on one icy foot, doesn't even need the help of a wooden plank.
"A thunderstorm? Really?" The boy mimics Klaytal’s heron pose until the storm passes.
”No, not good at all. First fire and now water and ice. What an unfriendly place.”
You weather the storm, and Samen can disable the trap with your help after .
You can reveal the rest of the map. You don't see anything but blank walls here. You look around and don't see anything.
One thing of note is that when Gate, the least agile of the bunch, accidentally dips a toe into the water he discovers it's actually acid. And quite cold due to the trap that was set off. You think it would do decent but tolerable damage each round as well as exposing you to lethal cold damage and, ultimately, nonlethal environmental cold issues.
Gate and Hucklepuck see a waterproof scroll tube sitting at the bottom of the pool in a corner along the wall, about 20 feet down. A Boy detects magic — Divination.
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"Too bad my leg isn't a grappling hook, I could shoot it down and snatch that scroll up. That'd be a clever idea, wouldn't it?" Gate chuckles to himself. "How ridiculous."
"Alright, that pillar should be safe now. Let's keep moving."
You find more dead ends. This room has no discernible exit.
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"Anyone have a rope? Maybe we could make some sort of hook from an arrow, or something."
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"Anyone? Could anyone have some rope? Why, it's funny you should ask that, Samen, because I'm sure there are many who might think, well, Klaytal will certainly have rope. He's a swashbuckler after all. Of course he'll have rope. Wouldn't that be silly if he didn't." Gate begins opening up his pack.
"But few might ever think to turn to me, to Gate, all knives and stabby-stabby, not expecting perhaps that I could possibly be prepared for such situations, that I could have brawn and brains to boot. No, that would be too much to expect. Except, and here's the thing I want to share with you Samen, and the rest of you too if you haven't caught on. it's not too much to expect at all."
Gate pulls a coil of rope from his bag and hands it to Samen with a smile.
"I'm not just some foolhardy fighter who grapples giants bats. I mean, I am, but not just. Now, let's see about getting that scroll, and hopefully getting ourselves out of this room."
My, someone took that personally. Must have hit a sore spot there, huh?
Samen makes an exaggerated bow, and says "Thank you, your braininess. I'm glad you had the foresight to pack for adventuring when we were hired as guards."
Samen pulls an arrow from his quiver and sets about tying it to the end of the rope as a makeshift hook.
Once he's satisfied with his hook, he'll gently lower it into the 'water', waiting to make sure it's not going to dissolve before exposing more than a few inches of Gate's precious rope to the acid. Assuming it survives this test, he'll try to fish out the scroll tube.
The boy smiles and sings a verse about soap and water. "Gateau, you should feel free to take a dip. No harm shall come to you."
Samen retrieves the scroll, deftly tying a knot and delicately nudging the scroll case into the loop, much like he would lift the bar away from the hammer in a mechanical trap.
Once up, you check the scroll case for traps
and find none. You open the case and find a single scroll; the Boy uses a cantrip and finds it's a scroll of "Detect secret doors."
Not skipping a beat, the brother and sometime doll reads the scroll aloud, casting about him for signs of a door.
There is a VERY well hidden door behind the trap, and another at the far end of the room (it's less well hidden, but also very well hidden).
You can open the doors; the one by the trap shows stairs going down; the one at the far end of the room opens onto a short hallway.
"I say we finish exploring this level before we go down to the next. But I'm sure I could be convinced otherwise, agreeable as I am."
Gate leads the way into the next room. The floor here is covered in ice. The North wall composed of solid ice; there's a dead body with large holes gored into it, lying along the middle of this wall.
A triplet of small humanoids, composed of fractal-like crystals of ice, are sitting on the floor. They jump to their feet when you come in.
They pepper you with several questions at the same time:
Where are you going?
Where did you came from?
Why are you near my pool?
What are you doing here?
Why are you so short?
Why are you so tall?
Why are you so skinny?
Why didn't you come through the wall?
Can you go away?
"Ah, icy friends. Well met. Well met. They call me Birne. My friends are Samen, Noodle, and Gateau. The azers are our friends. We'd like to go through yon concealed door and leave you here in peace."
They seem to consider, but as one the annoying little creatures, in their high-pitched voices ask: Why don't you answer our questions? Why? Why?
Why do you want to go through the door? Is there something scary in there? Are you going to hurt us? What's past the door?
They move about, twitching, agitated, and defensive.
"We would like to find our friend, a lovely maiden and our liege. Morsain's our home, a city of the mortal folk. I am short because I'm young, or so it seems. They are big because they're grown, but mean no harm."
The boy bows graciously. "We shall not harm you or your lake. We do not know for sure what lies beyond, but I suspect they have some frozen treats for each of you."
What kind of treats? Do you have treats now? Will you come back and give them to us? Are you honest? Do you promise?
"We do have treats! Now let me see..." The boy reaches into the candy bag, wishing for an wintermint snowball pop. "We'll share what arctic goodness we can find therein."
They cautiously approach, then run back to gobble up the treats in safety. They grind their icicle fangs, quite pleased.
What are these? Will you pass? Will you tell us what’s behind the door? Will you touch the ice wall as you walk by? Are you nimble? Can you dodge?
It seems as if you have mollified the creatures, and they will let you pass.
They're icy winter mints, my friends. I'll bring you more delights once we've explored. I fear the wall would do us harm, but if you wish we'll touch it's frosty face. We're fleet of foot, I'd say."
The smile inanely at the Boy's words. When the party advances the ice-creatures run away, vanishing through the wall.
The body along the wall had holes in it. nearby is a mace and a pair of boots.
Behind the hidden door are more stairs going down.
"They’re boots to warm and speed you through the winter’s bite. A mace to smite a creature birthed of springs and seas."
"So, down here, or back and down the other stairs?"
The boy walks to the secret door on the far side of the room.
The secret entrance that leads back towards the level's entrance opens into another room; this area is full of icy stalagmites, making it hard to see exactly what is in here. It's deathly cold and still. You can see no visible exit from this vantage point.
"Yes, very nice boots, that I wouldn't mind wearing actually, but now that we've given out treats, did we figure out how this body died? I mean, aside from being full of holes."
It looks like there’s a trap embedded in the icy wall; it freezes you to the wall while ice-spikes shoot at you from the opposite side. This person was gored to death by the spikes while they were stuck to the wall; their body later fell to the floor.
Will you touch the ice wall as you walk by? Are you nimble? Can you dodge?
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"What's in there, Jack?" Samen walks over to join the Boy. "Huh. I think I'll skip the room full of spiky ice, thanks. Let's keep going."
You head down, and pause at the bottom of the stairs: at first glance, the steps drop off into a colorless void.
However, it seems there is a floor here — indeed — a complete room. The walls, floor, and ceiling of this area are made up of dense, semi-transparent air. The space seems to float in nothingness, no telling just how deep or how wide.
You see the dim shadows of other rooms floating in the void, but you can't see into them and it's hard to gauge distance.
Pushing against a wall causes the air bubble to give way a little, as if it's spongy. If you exerted force in a purpseful manner you'd likely pop through the walls.
There are words carved in the blue marble archway that designates the entrance to this airy space, in a language none of you understand.
ငါ့ကိုစိ တ်ပျ က်ကြပါ စို့ သို့မဟုတ်ငါသ ည်သ င့်ကိုထိ ခို က်မည်
In the room beyond, through another archway, is a pedestal made of pillowy cloud. On it rests a golden lamp.
You look for traps, having noted weird inscriptions previously (and the consequences of ignoring them).
The brothers spot a trap, nestled into the stone archway.
"Of course there's a trap" Samen says, rolling his eyes. "Why wouldn't there be?"
He steps forward to examine it and, once satisfied, sets about trying to disable it, muttering to himself as he works.
The trap is disarmed! You can step into the room safely.
The boy looks over Samen's shoulder as he tinkers. "You've got a touch for keeping others safe. But when did you begin to orate as you work?"